Third Writing Assignment
Answer all of the following sets of questions. Make sure your answers are complete and accurate and that they are expressed in clear, grammatically correct sentences.
As on previous assignments, be sure to cite the pages in our texts (or give more complete references if you are using sources other than our texts) indicating where you got your information. If you are directly quoting from a source, be sure to use quotation marks to indicate that the wording is not your own.
- Who were (a) Gracie and Rosie Attard, and (b) Ian Wilmut? In your answers, explain the issues in Biomedical Ethics that were raised in the Attard case, and by Wilmut’s research. You will find something about Wilmut and the Attards in our text and in my Comments on our Blackboard site. But you are welcome (and encouraged) to make use of other sources also.
- What legislation has the US Congress passed that regulates treatment of impaired newborns? These include the Baby Doe Rules, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and its amendments, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under what circumstances, according to Gregory Pence in our text Medical Ethics, do these laws allow for withdrawal or withholding treatment from newborns? What penalties do they impose for non-compliance? In our discussion board, we considered the case of R.B., which happened in England. If this case had been brought to court in the US, how do you think it would have been decided?
- In Chapter Seven of Medical Ethics, Pence considers several objections to Reproductive Cloning; among these are claims that cloning is against the will of God, that it is unnatural, that it will lead to the creation of “designer babies,” that a cloned child would be harmed if it found out how it originated, and that cloning will lead to inequality. How does Pence respond to these objections? What considerations does he raise concerning liberty? Do you think Pence is right in defending cloning?